If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi would have been traveling the world on assignments. The South African relates how her reign has been diffferent, as she works from her current home in New York, continuing to advocate for gender equality. A special read as her home country celebrates Women’s Month.



What have the last few months of being a Miss Universe been like, with the hovering pandemic?&nbsp; My reign as Miss Universe has been a different one from the usual. Like everyone else, I have also had to social distance and work from home, which is very out of the norm for a Miss Universe.



What has been the best moment of your reign so far? It was getting to go home for the first time after winning. I had a whole week of ‘welcome back’ celebrations. To see the faces of young girls and women when they looked at me and seeing a possibility that their lives too can change in an incredible way was heart-warming. Before I won, I had said I wanted to win because I want young girls to look at me and see their faces reflected in mine, for them to see that their dreams too are valid. To actually go home finally and see it happening is a blessing I will never forget nor take for granted.



As Miss Universe, what are some of the main aspects of your job? The biggest part of the job is traveling the world doing different work, from charity work to entertainment and speaking engagements. Every Miss Universe has a different social cause close to her heart. We take the year to address those issues, be it educating or raising awareness.With the travel ban all over the world due to the pandemic, I have not been able to travel. My last trip was to Indonesia in March. Even though I have not been able to travel, I have still done most events virtually. I have used all my social media platforms to continue championing gender equality and issues of race and racism using a hashtag we created #UniverseUnited. With this hashtag, we have been able to open conversations about different social issues, we have been able to educate and entertain each other from every corner of the world.



When you won the crown, there were some negative comments about the win. How have you been able to rise above them? When you challenge the status quo and go against the grain, people will always have mixed comments and emotions so I cannot say I did not expect some resistance. For me, the most important thing was, and is still today, to fight for inclusion and representation. I want to live in a diverse, inclusive world. When I won, that was a victory and a win for representation and inclusion. That is what helps me rise above the negativity; knowing that there is a bigger picture that matters, and not focusing my time on non-entities that have no contribution to progress in this world.



People, particularly here in South Africa, are still celebrating your victory as Miss Universe especially because you advocate ‘natural beauty’. Why do you think it is important for representation of people of color in media and business? It has been said many times before that we can’t be what we can’t see. For me, this is one example of many on why representation is important. If the media continues presenting horrible stereotypes of black people or people of color, there is no progress happening. We need more positive messages and images of black people out there, for young people to see a possibility of what they can become. Seeing a black, natural-haired Miss Universe as a young black girl growing up in a rural area is enough to spark a fire inside someone to want to strive for more and be more. To see a black president is enough to steer a young black man to the direction of his incredible dream to influence and change the world in a beautiful way. To see a woman leading a nation or company is enough for women to recognize the power that they have within them, it is enough for them to not be scared to step into their power and take up space.



Given everything happening in the world where society is highlighting racial and gender inequalities across organizations, platforms and sectors, what would you as Miss Universe like to see changed before your reign is over? Conversations have been heard. I would now love to see more action and implementation. Companies and platforms have tweeted, and they have said amazing things about progress when it comes to systemic racism, now, I would like to see more of them actually doing something. Most of the world is functioning on systemic racism, I would like to see in the future [beyond my reign], the dismantling of these problematic systems from the ground-up.



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What do you say to people who regard pageants like Miss Universe as ‘anti-feminist’? We are all entitled to have different views and opinions about things. Miss Universe started as a swimsuit competition, which some may regard as objectifying women, so it’s not far off or shocking that some people feel this way. However, just like everything else, the pageant has evolved and is continuing to evolve every day. I have seen women come on this platform and champion a variety of social issues. I have seen them being empowered and empowering other women. As a Miss Universe, I have been able to amplify my message of gender equality and gender-based violence through incredible partnerships and relationships. I have been able to challenge and open conversations about beauty stereotypes that have been pushed on to women for many years. For me, it has always been about what I can do with this platform to influence positive change, not only in my community, but throughout the world.



Female empowerment is something you champion; can you tell us why this is so important to you? And also draw on how you would like to continue to empower women even beyond your reign as Miss Universe. I believe in the empowerment of every different kind of woman, regardless of gender or race. It is important because we need to get to a place where every gender is equal, one where we are not bound by patriarchy and inequality. Not only is it killing our future, but it is killing countries and economies. Women are just as capable as anyone else to get the job done, so let them do the job. It’s also not asking for special treatment — just equality.



Miss Universe is about sisterhood. Have your predecessors given you any advice during your reign and who has given the best advice (and what was the advice)? Yes, absolutely. The former winners have given advice whenever I speak to them. I think the one common advice they have given me is to focus on things that matter and what I want to achieve during my time as Miss Universe and to cancel out all the noise. Pageant fans can be brutal and toxic so it’s important to know why you are there and not lose focus.



You currently live in New York City, how has it been? What do you miss most about South Africa? It’s quite unfortunate I have not been able to experience New York extensively due to the pandemic, but the little that I have experienced has been great. What I miss the most about South Africa is my family, the diversity of my people and the food.



Looking at your recent partnership with 1st for women, what attracted you to the brand? It is the belief that 1st for women has in women; the belief in our resolve and power, and that we have space in this world to thrive just like everyone else. I also share these beliefs, and so that is why this is the perfect partnership.



Finally, what next after Miss Universe? Most of my plans I cannot disclose yet. What I can say though is that I will always champion gender equality and women’s rights even beyond my years as Miss Universe.

Empire State Building Hosts Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi

Miss Universe In The Time Of Covid-19: Zozibini Tunzi On Influencing Positive Change

As I walk through Brooklyn Bridge Park, gazing at the magnificent
Manhattan skyline on the East River, at first glance it looks as crowded as it
usually does. However, if you look closer, it’s not your typical mixture of
tourists with their cacophony of foreign languages, photographers with tripods,
or teenagers on skateboards. The park is filled with lone joggers, parents in
yoga pants pushing double strollers and carefully guarding kids on scooters. No
one plays volleyball in the sand by the river. No one picnics in the barbecue
area. Everyone keeps a friendly and polite distance, some people wear face
masks. And yet, it doesn’t really look like social distancing, or the lockdown
that it is&#8211;ordered by the mayor and the governor of New York in an effort to
contain the spread of the Coronavirus.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



That peaceful picture of joggers and children playing shouldn’t
fool anyone. The five boroughs of New York City – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan,
Staten Island and the Bronx&nbsp; &#8212; are hit hard by the rapidly spreading
Coronavirus. With the death toll rising – 678 patients had died in overcrowded
New York City hospitals by March 28, and the number of cases in New York state
has surpassed 53,000; the five boroughs of New York have become the epicenter
of the pandemic.&nbsp;



The healthcare system is overwhelmed. I spoke with four medical
professionals in the city and they all confirm the disturbing reality that is
in the news. The hospitals don’t have enough protective gear, single use masks
have been reused, hospitals do not have enough beds and ventilators. Medical
personnel intubate patients non-stop, assisting them with breathing. The city
hospitals have set up makeshift tents to triage COVID-19 patients as well as to
act as morgues. The government’s delayed response to the virus’s spread is
costing many, many lives.&nbsp;



One thing that is striking about New Yorkers – my home of
seventeen years – is how people come together and support each other. After the
terrorist attack on September 11, 2001; during the power outage in 2003, when
the entire city went dark for hours; and after the devastating hurricane Sandy
in 2012.&nbsp;



On the day when Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, New
Yorkers, predominantly liberal democrats, were especially sensitive with each
other, calmly sharing their sadness and expressing worry for the future of
their country. Today, when schools, non-essential stores, bars and restaurants
are closed, and many people are isolating and trying to follow social
distancing guidelines, members of communities come together to help each other:
buying food for older neighbors, helping with disinfecting door knobs and
elevator buttons. Mental health professionals volunteer their services to the
anxious and scared. At grocery stores and pharmacies only a few people are
allowed in at a time, people are waiting outside, standing about two meters
apart, and the doormen pour out hand sanitizer into people’s palms.&nbsp;



Besides solidarity and respect, there is also fear and anxiety.
Service and food industry workers are out of work, facing months of hardships.
According to the New York State Labor department, during the first days of the
lockdown, in some parts of the state, there was a 1,000% increase in
unemployment claims as 1.7 million people called to file for benefits. Well
over a million children from financially strained families relied on school
lunches, and those are now provided at meal sites. But that also means the
disparity in incomes in New York has been underscored by the Covid 19 impact,
and the inequality between the haves and have-nots will continue to be exposed.



Forbes headquarters in New Jersey has been working remotely since
the first week of March. We quickly re-organized: the entire company of 400
people has migrated into a virtual workplace, with a highly mobilized virtual
newsroom. Besides holding daily meetings and video calls, our teams get
together for virtual hangouts to keep each other’s spirits up.&nbsp;



The city authorities were slow to respond to the Covid-19 spread.
For weeks, when it was clear the crisis was imminent, eight million New Yorkers
commuted in crowded subways, went to crowded restaurants and bars, and also
traveled to and from crowded international airports, breathing in each other’s
air.&nbsp;



In the absence of the pandemic team, fired by Trump in 2018, the
federal government’s response was slow to respond to the disaster. The Trump
administration failed to prevent this crisis underestimating the danger of
Covid-19: “We have it totally under control,” he said in January, when the
virus was already spreading. “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have
it under control.” The government failed to test people in a timely manner. In
New York,&nbsp; Mayor Bill De Blasio and the governor Andew Cuomo stepped in
and tried to help the hospitals secure supplies and additional testing
stations. They are still trying.



Meanwhile, the city is contemplating closing parks and other public places. Maybe even prohibiting people from leaving their homes, or perhaps prohibiting them from leaving New York itself. For the next few weeks, the Big Apple will stay confined indoors. Stay home, don’t spread, save lives.



&#8211;Katya Soldak, Forbes Staff, Business

IMG_0317

New York On Lockdown

Donald Trump’s private real estate empire officially lost one of its most important tenants on Monday, when Nike <a href="https://news.nike.com/news/new-york-city-flagship-store-5th-avenue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it is closing its store at the president’s 6 East 57th Street property in New York City next spring in favor of a new location just a few blocks away. The announcement comes a year after commercial landlord SL Green disclosed that it had <a href="http://slgreen.com/news/342" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed a 15-year lease</a> with Nike at 650 Fifth Avenue.
Of all of the commercial properties in President Trump’s portfolio, the site known as Niketown is by far the largest occupied by a single tenant. With Nike leaving, the Trump Organization is left searching for a new identity at the marquee property, which Forbes estimates is worth $253 million.
The building comprises roughly 65,000 square feet of space just off of Fifth Avenue, in the middle of one of the most famous retail corridors in the world. But as Amazon and other e-commerce sites grab more business every year, the value of retail real estate in the neighborhood continues to fall. That Trump controls Niketown, which is just around the corner from Trump Tower, only further complicates things.
“I don’t know of any tenants that need that much space other than department stores,” said Eric Anton, a Manhattan real estate broker at the firm Marcus &amp; Millichap. “And I don’t think there are any expanding department stores. Maybe Harrods comes in and takes it. But any foreign group is going to be looked at as weird &#8211; you know, collusion or some kind of crazy Trump conspiracy theory.”
Domestic retailers might also look for other sites in a New York City borough where only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/new-york" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10% of the population</a> voted for Donald Trump. Tiffany’s, which owns the site next door to Niketown, said “post-election traffic disruptions” helped cause a 14% drop in sales during the 2016 holiday season.
Still, 6 East 57th Street remains in the heart of New York’s commercial district, which draws tourists from all over the world. “You’ve got the best retail on the planet within 100 feet in every direction,” Anton said. “Maybe you cherry-pick one of the tenants that’s coming out, you know. You’re definitely going to do a new facade. They’ll scrape that facade off and they’ll build something really interesting.”
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment.
Whatever the Trump Organization ends up doing, it won’t be under much pressure from lenders. The Trump Organization, which owns a ground lease on the space through 2079, recently paid off its debt on the property. The president’s business also owns office and retail space at Trump Tower. The largest tenant there is Gucci, according to a 2012 Securities and Exchange Commission <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/850779/000153949712000490/fwp.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filing</a>, which has a lease that expires in 2026.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/billionaires/2017/10/18/donald-trumps-fortune-fell-600-million-one-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How Donald Trump&#8217;s Fortune Fell $600 Million In One Year</a>
Since the announcement of Nike’s new agreement with SL Green, many have speculated that the move out from the shadow of Trump Tower was at least in part driven by Trump’s divisive political rhetoric. Nike spokeswoman Ilana Finley declined to address whether politics played a role in the decision, saying that the company had been planning a move “for years.” The new space “gives us more opportunities to play with new concepts than we have now,” Finley said.
Two employees said that while Trump’s political rhetoric played a minor role in Nike’s decision to leave, the physical layout of the store was a bigger factor. “It is mostly due to space constraints, more than any political implications,” said one current Nike employee, who requested anonymity to speak about matters they weren’t authorized to discuss.
Another employee, who also requested anonymity, said that store designers at Nike “hated” working on displays there. “It’s just tight. It’s hard to do what we want to do there.” The employee said that being associated with Trump’s name was also “a factor, to some degree.”
Some former Nike employees, meanwhile, scoffed at the notion that Nike’s move was in part politically motivated. “We never did anything when I was there that was even remotely political,” said Ed Stair, a former vice president of real estate and store construction who worked for Nike for more than a decade.
Nike will close its current space sometime in March 2018, the company said. While the new store won’t open for another year after that, customers will still be able to shop at the company’s stores in the SoHo and Flatiron neighborhoods. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Matt Drange</a>, FORBES STAFF

Donald Trump’s Real Estate Business Losing One Of Its Most Important Tenants

World-famous Forbes magazine woke up to its second century in an overcast New York after a night of whiskey, bagpipes, banter, billionaires and Stevie Wonder.
Forbes celebrated 100 years of publication with a huge party for the rich and famous on the swanky Chelsea Piers overlooking New York Harbour. It was a who&#8217;s who of business from South Africa&#8217;s mining magnate Patrice Motsepe to Warren Buffett and Sean &#8216;Diddy&#8217; Coombs.
The business magazine &#8211; celebrated in songs with a cover that is the envy of  billionaires &#8211; has survived two world wars, depressions, recessions and the decline in the print business. It began reporting in a business world where oil and steel were king; it completed its century when Artificial Intelligence and technology were making people rich.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2017/09/20/forbes-magazine-100-years-hits-flops/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes Magazine: 100 Years Of Hits And Flops</a>
The magazine was the brainchild of parsimonious Scotsman BC Forbes, a man who spent a few years working in South Africa, in the early 20th century; first, on the Natal Mercury, in Durban, then on the Rand Daily Mail, in Johannesburg.
Forbes sailed to New York in 1904, with $50 in his pocket, to make his fortune. He struggled to find a job and worked for free for a New York publication to prove his worth.
&#8220;For my grandfather this was a leap of faith. He didn&#8217;t know whether the owner was going to pay him or not. Money was very important to my grandfather. He used to say the best way to make copper wire was to get two Scotsmen to fight over a penny!&#8221; joked his grandson Steve Forbes, the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine who hasn&#8217;t missed a column for nearly half a century.
Forbes also recalled how his grandfather had booked into New York&#8217;s the Waldorf Astoria, one of the most luxurious and expensive hotels in the world. He had to scrimp and save, by walking to stories and saving his taxi money, to make the bill every month.
&#8220;A lot of his friends asked if he was mad. He couldn&#8217;t afford it, but every night he was in the bar mixing with the biggest and most powerful business names of the day,&#8221; he says.
Mixing with the right people, coupled with sharp and honest reporting, helped make Forbes magazine a success from its launch in 1917.
At the function was a sartorial reminder of BC Forbes. Grandson Kip Forbes wore his grandfather&#8217;s tailored tweed suit, that looked like it was made yesterday.
&#8220;I think it was made for in the him in the 1940s and it has survived the mothballs, so I thought it was right to wear it tonight in his honor,&#8221; he says.
Kip Forbes agreed that his grandfather was parsimonious as well as a shrewd business journalist.
&#8220;He used to say, I don&#8217;t give advice, I sell it,&#8221; he chuckled.
The event was supposed to see a jet plane, mounted on a boat, float up to the quayside at Chelsea Piers, but the rough weather on the night caused the Coastguard to put the block on this.
Instead the high-flyer of the night was Stevie Wonder who played a set opened by My Cherie Amour.
But the music closest to the Forbes family greeted guests. The skirl of the  bagpipes was in honor of the founder who had traveled a long journey from poverty in the village of New Deer, in Aberdeenshire, to creating the magazine of billionaires amid the riches of New York.
Steve Forbes toasted his late grandfather with a sip of 12-year-old Scotch given by one of the sponsors of the party. With the sip came the Forbes wry wit.
&#8220;My grandfather would have appreciated this&#8230; especially as it is free!&#8221; says his grandson to laughter from the large crowd.

A Mad Decision Paying Off 100 Years Later

Felix Sater is not a name that has come up much during the presidential campaign. That he has a colorful past is an understatement: The Russian-born Sater served a year in prison for stabbing a man in the face with a margarita glass during a bar fight, pleaded guilty to racketeering as part of a mafia-driven “pump-and-dump” stock fraud and then escaped jail time by becoming a highly valued government informant.
He was also an important figure at Bayrock, a development company and key Trump real estate partner during the 2000s, notably with the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium in New York City, and has said under oath that he represented Trump in Russia and subsequently billed himself as a senior Trump advisor, with an office in Trump Tower.
Usually such an association would ignite a political firestorm. From the Clintons’ Whitewater deals to Richard Nixon’s relationship with Florida banker and developer Bebe Rebozo, all the way back to 19th-century industrialist Mark Hanna’s influence over William McKinley, presidential candidates
have long suffered by dint of association.
Sater has been profiled in the Washington Post, on ABC News and in several other outlets. But few have taken much note of him, presumably because Trump has said, under oath, that he barely knew him. “If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn’t know what he looked like,” he said in a deposition in November 2013. Asked how many times he had ever conversed with Sater, he said, “Not many.” And asked about a previous BBC interview, in which he was questioned about Sater’s mafia connections, Trump said he didn’t recall the interview.
This past December Trump went further: “Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it,” Trump told AP, referring questions about Sater to his staff. “I’m not that familiar with him.”
End of story? Not quite. Looking into Trump’s deals, FORBES has uncovered numerous e-mails and sworn statements that indicate Sater was closer to Trump, his organization and his children than previously revealed. Additionally, FORBES has connected three billionaire oligarchs from Kazakhstan to potential deals involving Trump and Sater.
Why does this matter? The story of Sater and the one involving billionaires quietly backing the Trump-Bayrock deals speaks to a key virtue of any good businessman – due diligence – that seems especially relevant for a candidate running on private sector acumen and the need to do “extreme vetting” of those seeking to get into the country.
It wouldn’t have taken much vetting to get the scoop on Sater. FORBES retained a highly regarded global-risk-assessment firm to conduct a background check, using only what was available to it in 2007 – the year the Trump-Bayrock relationship was promoted. The investigative firm (it asked not to be named for fear of political repercussions) discovered many facts that we’re revealing here and others that have come out before, including felony convictions and organized crime ties. Such due diligence on Sater could have been done for $5,000.

All The (Potential) President’s Men

While on my first late Monday morning subway ride, from 34th Street to 125th Street in Harlem, New York, it felt like I was traveling from Soweto to Park Station in Johannesburg, with a few notable exceptions.
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Just like back home, the coach was jam-packed, but there were no young men train surfing and the construction workers wore clean and bright work suits, without the odor that comes with long hours and back-breaking work. Some passengers jammed to music coming from their headphones; the dapper executives were fixated on their iPads held in one hand while the other grasped the overhead rails. Initially, feeling slightly paranoid, I was vigilant and clung to my valuables. After a while, I loosened up as I realized how chilled my fellow passengers were.
Amid the frantic activity of New York, I was flooded with memories of Johannesburg as three African women sat opposite me. The women, each of them hawkers, had two oversized plastic bags between their legs. They wore identical black headscarves and matching flat shoes. Taking no notice of the commuters squeezed around them, the women chatted and passed kente cloth, a traditional Ghanaian interwoven material, among themselves. Kente has become an integral part of African-American graduation attire.
While a handful of passengers were annoyed, the hustle of the hawkers, and the ‘gibberish’ coming from their tongues, left the rest amazed. I came to realize that the women left their village in Africa for the dream of a better life in the land of the free. Not a word of English was used in their conversation, but they know the basics of the language to make ends meet. I have met many other African foreigners like them who told me they learned English in the United States (US).
Soon after, I stumbled upon a 10-foot bronze statue of Harriet Tubman, the African American anti-slavery activist. Like the hawkers on the train, Tubman’s head was covered with a head wrap. Unlike the hawkers, Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland around 1820. In her late 20s, Tubman, along with her two brothers escaped the plantations; her brothers got cold feet and returned, leaving her to flee to the free state of Pennsylvania alone.
Later on, Tubman returned to Maryland to free slaves with the help of other freed African Americans. She carried out her mission armed with a shotgun. She never fired the gun because nobody tried to stop her. For her work, Tubman was called ‘Moses’ by her people.
Once slavery was abolished, Tubman joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The former slaves took African Methodism across the Atlantic to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and later southern Africa.
Tubman’s statue, on Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, overlooks an array of African restaurants in an area dubbed ‘Small Africa’. The owner of one of these eateries, Patisserie des Ambassades, is Gorgui N’doye. This Senegalese engineer opened the first restaurant in the south Harlem 16 years ago, with less than 10 employees. Today, Patisserie des Ambassades has 50 staff and opens for 20 hours every day.
N’doye started the restaurant in 2001 when Harlem was notorious for being a gangster’s paradise. The area underwent gentrification in 2005 and business started to boom.
N’doye has since returned to Senegal where has expanded his business to exporting peanuts to Asia and South Africa. In his absence, Patisserie des Ambassades is managed by another Senegalese, Ahmadou Ndiaye Jean.
Harlem’s facelift, however, hasn’t benefited everyone. Eric Fraska, a 31-year-old Liberian financier at MoneyGram in New York, laments the displacement of black folk due to the rising cost of living in the area.
Fraska came to the US as a 20-year-old to study. Over the years, he witnessed a lot of change. Like Ndoye, Fraska is saving money to start a business in Africa. He says he’s certainly going back.
“My education and skills are no longer needed here. There’s nothing more to do here. Africa is the future,” Fraska says over a frothing cappuccino.
I have no doubt the next time I catch up with Fraska will be in either Johannesburg or Monrovia.

‘There’s Nothing More To Do Here.  Africa Is The Future’

It was a usual Friday evening on July 1; I had just knocked off at work. Jersey City, in New York, was covered with American flags of all sizes, flying from car roofs, apartments and the front gardens of homes. Barely in sight in the morning, the red, white and blue flags suddenly mushroomed in my host city.
In the corridors of Forbes’ office, I overheard colleagues talking about their grand plans for the coming Independence Day long weekend – it meant nothing to me as a South African, I was just excited for the day off on Monday. I don’t hate my job, it’s just in a South African’s DNA to halt the capitalist machinery.
The South African public holiday on April 27, which marks the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, doesn’t have much significance to me nor my friends. We are happy to be duty free, unlike the careerist politicians who never miss the opportunity to sell empty dreams at rallies. While the voting fodder flocks into stadiums for a political party’s t-shirt or a small food pack, we catch up on household chores and a little fun later in the day. In the 22 years of this so-called freedom, I haven’t witnessed anything like the patriotism of the Americans.
Since 1776, without fail, over 300 million Americans still commemorate the Fourth of July, with pomp. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted, and the British Empire lost control of the 13 colonies that now make up part of the United States (US). Now, many countries were once colonized by the British Empire, but none come as close to celebrating their independence as the US. Sadly, independence didn’t apply to everyone; the US continued exploiting African slaves for a century. The country had now elevated itself to the colonizer until 1865, when slavery was abolished. Even this didn’t put an end to the lynching of African Americans. As a matter of fact, the brutality experienced by blacks is still pervasive today.
The longevity of the US independence can be attributed to John Adams, the lawyer and politician who would become president. While pleading with the larcenous British Empire, Adams penned a letter to his wife, Abigail, expressing his wish for independence.
“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more,” wrote Adams.
To this day, his wish lives on, Americans commemorate the day with barbeques, parades, and fireworks.
As I drew near to my apartment on that hot Friday’s night, looking forward to sundowners at Guillo’s Place, the local Mexican bar, there was a strange activity in the yard. My neighbors were out on the stoep having drinks.
They warmly invited me to their small soiree, but the sudden friendliness took me by surprise. I waited for two months to be invited for tea, but I was always the invisible African. I went up to my studio to grab the dusty bottle of South African dry red that was on top of my fridge.
From then, the long weekend was taken care of, with copious food and drink consumed, like the millions of other Americans. As America is going to the polls later this year, it was inevitable that politics was discussed. Despite voting in the New Jersey primaries, none of my new acquaintances were happy with Hilary Clinton nor Donald Trump. Who cares? At least they know who they are voting for. I am envious of their freedom to choose who can stand for president. I don’t see that happening in my homeland.
The long weekend culminated to the mother of all parties at 9PM on Monday. Even the rain couldn’t put a damper on the revellers that had gathered on Coles Street, in downtown Jersey City, nor the fireworks on the other side of the Hudson River in Manhattan.
Thanks to my neighbors, I didn’t miss Guillo’s tequila.

The Night African Wine Trumped Tequila

As rugby ponders its future in Africa, the game is catching on in the city that never sleeps and doesn’t know an All Black from a Springbok.
In April, the new and rich PRO Rugby league was launched in New York. It has four South African players among its five teams.
Pedrie Wannenburg, a former Springboks and Blue Bulls loose forward, captains Denver and plays alongside compatriots Armandt Peens, Martin Knoetze and Niku Kruger. The four helped Denver to lead the league with six games unbeaten. Former Nelson Mandela University scrumhalf Charlie Purdon is a star player for San Diego.
Another three South Africans are among the coaching staff for the teams. South Africans make up the majority of the 15 foreign players and coaches contracted to PRO Rugby. Wannenburg, who is the most senior of the players, and one who was capped 20 times by the Springboks, earns $70,000 a year at Denver. The lowest paid player in the league gets $20,000.
PRO Rugby is the brainchild of New York investor Doug Schoninger, who owns Stadium Capital Financing Group. He is counting on the influence of foreign players to grow the sport, which is little known in the United States.
“We needed the help of foreign players, they really play a great service. We have the All Black fullback Mils Muliaina and Springbok loose forward Pedrie Wannenburg as captains. They serve such a great mentorship purpose in their teams. We have this Italian guy, Mirco Bergamasco, he is a mentor and captain for Sacramento. Their culture of rugby is better than ours and they are giving that to our players,” he said.
Schoninger, like many Americans, knew little about rugby, in 2014, when he failed to buy a minor league baseball team. Through an Australian friend, Schoninger was diverted to another investor who had struggle to bring rugby to the United States for nine years. Schoninger didn’t agree with the terms of the potential partner, who wanted to compete with the National Football League (NFL).
Instead Schoninger started alone and small; PRO Rugby was approved by USA Rugby in April 2015.
Schoninger says rugby may be small, compared to baseball and basketball, but has great potential.
“Most people don’t even know what rugby is – they know the name – there could be only two million people who know rugby in America. That’s what gets potential sponsors excited. It’s a new white sheet of paper in America. It’s not rugby in England or South Africa or Australia. Our rules are slightly different; our presentation is different. Arguably, there’s no other sport with this kind of opportunity in America, that’s well known, that has the World Cup every four years, that’s not here. That’s what I saw when I was talking to my Australian friend.”
USA Rugby, the sport’s national body, said the sport was the fastest growing team sport in the United States between 2008 and 2013. The game has increased it draw for spectators. In 2014, the All Blacks and USA Eagles played in Chicago before 61,500 in a packed Soldier Field stadium.
Schoninger said the league has not received any major sponsors, nor contracted broadcasting deals, but he was prepared to run alone for three seasons. He was hopeful that investors will soon come on board as the sport’s popularity grows.
The plan is to increase the five foreign players’ quota, per team, to seven in 2017. It means a another handful of South Africans, like 26-year-old Purdon, will line up for hard currency and softer tackles in the city that could be waking up to rugby.

Rugby In New York? Nice Try

It’s almost 36 years since John Lennon died from an assassin’s bullet outside his home, The Dakota, in Manhattan, New York. Yet they still flock to mourn the Beatles guitarist, from Liverpool, at his memorial site in Central Park.
John Lennon, Bullet, Manhattan, New York, Memorial, Mark David Chapman, July 2016
It’s chilling to think how killer, Mark David Chapman, posed for a photo with Lennon, hours before he pulled the trigger. Chapman, who was a Lennon fan, was imprisoned for life and denied parole many times.
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Across the road from where Lennon was gunned down, his widow Yoko Ono built a 2.5-acre teardrop-shaped living memorial in Central Park. Their Dakota apartment overlooked the park where the couple often walked.
On Lennon’s birthday, October 9, 1985, Ono and thousands fans unveiled the memorial site and renamed it Strawberry Fields; the name of a song he wrote for the Beatles.
As a Lennon fan from Africa, I vowed to set my foot there before returning to the motherland in September. In my second month in New York, weekends passed without visiting the park. I had been promised tours of the Big Apple since I arrived but I stay on the other side of the Hudson River in Jersey City. All my colleagues are on other side in New York City and Manhattan.
At 6PM on a Saturday in May, I was caught up in the moment of despair as it seemed another weekend was going to waste, a text message beeped. It was Karsten Strauss, a colleague.
“Hi Thobile, (do you) still have time to hang out tomorrow? But first a question: are you a fan of John Lennon?”
“Yeah man, I am John Lennon groupie,” I replied.
Apparently Manhattan knows not Sunday rest and never sleeps. I took a train to Manhattan and followed instructions sent to my phone. Strauss was there waiting for me. We walked down a few miles and passed two guards in navy suits and matching marine caps at the gate of the Dakota apartment.
“Where did it happen, officer?” Strauss queried as we passed.
One guard, leaning on a sign that read ‘Authorized Persons Only Beyond This Point’, lowered his head and hit the ground with shiny black shoes. “Right here,” he replied.
As we entered the memorial, the walkway led to a small crowd taking photographs around the black and white mosaic circle with one word on it:  “Imagine”. The mosaic was a gift from the city of Naples, Italy.
Nearby, a busker strummed his guitar, very hard, playing a song I didn’t recognize; opposite him a grey-haired man in a stall sold souvenirs bearing Lennon quotes.
The excitement was overwhelming; I stepped to the mosaic and smiled to the camera with my African swagger. Unbeknown to me I had jumped the queue, I was embarrassed but I offered my sincere apology for the mishap. That’s not how I was raised. In the spirit of Lennon, peace was made.
Something about this memorial stirred thoughts of Africa. In 2007, South Africa mourned the death of a musician cut off in his prime. Reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in front of his children as he dropped them off at a relative’s house in Rosettenville, Johannesburg. The man of sober habits – a non-smoker – died at the hands of carjackers.
Dube, born on a farm in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, was drawn to music after stumbling on instruments in a school cupboard. He released his first album in 1982; two years after Lennon died. He died 27 years after Lennon, and not much older, aged 43, with 21 albums and a record deal with Motown. Like Lennon, Dube carried a torch for peace.
The legacy of Lennon will be celebrated for many more decades in his adopted land. Dube, the man who stuck by his people and preached peace to the end, died with his good name and little else to remember him by other than his songs. There is no park, nor memorial, nor studio, to commemorate a man who meant as much to many Africans as Lennon ever did. Imagine.

Imagine?

As Tokyo Sexwale jets around the world seeking support for his bid to become Fifa president, his most significant trip will have been to the US grand jury in December.
A fleeting visit to New York remains shrouded in mystery with the US Attorney General’s offices refusing to comment and Sexwale’s camp saying only: “He did appear before a grand jury. The FBI said he needed to appear and he went as a potential witness.”
But it is almost certainly related to the bribery and corruption allegations in which South African officials are accused and, even if he is not directly implicated, will cast a dark shadow over Sexwale’s bid to become the first African to head world football’s governing body.
The election of a new leader of world football will come at an extraordinary congress in Zurich on February 26 with Sexwale among the five candidates in a distinctly underwhelming field with no clear favorite and the potential for an upset.
Sexwale could have offered a gravitas missing among the candidates, with his impeccable anti-apartheid credentials, his time spent in prison on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela and his role in the governing of a post-apartheid South Africa when he served as the first premier of the Gauteng province.
But, as a member of the South African bid committee that successfully campaigned for the country to host the 2010 World Cup, his candidacy is now clouded by the possibility of vote buying, notably to Jack Warner from Trinidad and Tobago, the former Fifa vice president and powerful leader of the Caribbean bloc who delivered vital support.
Two high ranking South Africans have been fingered in the United States (US) indictment against a bevy of former Fifa officials, with allegations they handed over a suitcase of cash dollars in a Paris hotel room to one of Warner’s sons and that a $10-million ‘donation’ from South Africa to Caribbean football was nothing more than a bribe.
The pair have not been named but their identities will eventually become public once the court cases in the US get underway.
It leaves Sexwale out on the fringes of the race when he might have been able to offer himself as an alternative to what looks increasingly like a straight tussle between the Asian and European blocs.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain is the president of the Asian Football Confederation and, according to most pundits, the frontrunner, albeit narrowly ahead of Gianni Infantino, the Swiss attorney who is the Uefa general secretary and was supposed to be a proxy candidate but has since been pushed to the front since the banning of Uefa president Michel Platini.
Sexwale, who has made a large personal fortune in mining and other business, has tenuous football credentials and no apparent reason for wanting to become Fifa president other than it would be a good lark. The 62-year-old does not lack money, profile or international reputation.
His previous involvement with football has been to sit on a few Fifa committees at the invitation of Sepp Blatter, who was impressed by his jocularity and competence at the time of South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup. Sexwale was initially a member on Fifa’s anti-racism committee, then one that dealt with media matters and now serves as a mediator in fractious relationship between Israeli and Palestinian football.
Sexwale has had no involvement in South African football and, unlike many of his former cabinet colleagues, is rarely seen at games either. The name ‘Tokyo’ comes from a nickname given to him as a kid for his passion for karate, rather than the round ball game, when he was growing up. He was baptized Mosima Gabriel.
His manifesto did him no favors either, with its strongest point being a bizarre promise to allow national teams to display sponsorship on their jerseys so football associations could make more money.
At a time when greater issues have to be dealt with at Fifa, and the world of football is crying out for someone to offer a road map to a credible and clean future, Sexwale’s points seemed disappointingly trivial.
In December, at a rare forum in front of the press, his strongest argument for being president was his Africaness.
“The score is 111 to zero against Africa. For 111 years, Fifa has not had an African,” he said in Johannesburg. “I’m not here to keep quiet like a slave and pretend that these things are not happening.”
This will likely have little appeal in the hardened forum of sports politics, where arguments over race and religion have long since dissolved, with Africans having headed both world athletics and swimming in the past.
In the insular world of football politics, Sexwale is an outsider and his bid to get an endorsement from his own continent failed when the Confederation of African Football received him in Cairo in November and listened to his presentation but pointedly did not move to back him, even though he is the only African in the race.
Sexwale has missed a trick in failing to concentrate his message on ways to fix the crisis at Fifa – to change its statutes and structures and to devise methods for accountability that would help restore commercial and consumer confidence.
In the past, candidates for the Fifa presidency have made the mainstay of their electoral promise how much more money they could assure the voting member associations but, at this time, priorities are much changed.
Sexwale flashes a radiant smile; his barrel-chested voice commands instant attention and his charm is legendary. But he entered the race for the Fifa presidency with naivety, poor advice and, barring a comeback miracle, will exit with little more than a damaged reputation.

‘For 111 Years Fifa Has Not Had An African’

We meet Ofuakuor Ofuatey-Kodjoe, popular as Ofie Kodjoe, in her beautiful home in Tesano, a suburb in Accra famous for one of the country’s first sports clubs. A person with multiple talents deserves multiple adjectives to describe her. Suffice to say she is one of the most pleasant, inspirational, witty, intelligent and down-to-earth personalities you will meet in Ghana.
Kodjoe has had a multifaceted career, from being a corporate executive at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Networks in New York and an award-winning singer to launching three successful businesses and her own radio show in Accra.
Kodjoe, along with her brother and sister, were raised in New York; her dad was a professor of political science and her mother a nurse. The family’s plan was for Kodjoe to attend law school but she changed her mind half-way and switched to medicine. She finally ended up studying political science and African studies.
That was not the end of her academic ambitions. Her real aim was to study music.
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“When I was 19, I went to my dad and told him I wanted to go to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he looked at me like I had six heads and said ‘no’,” says Kodjoe, who was too scared to fight, and instead settled for her dad’s career choice – political science and African studies – a decision she regrets.
She went to the City University of New York; her dad ensured she excelled in all subjects. She would rehearse with a band after class while still achieving 18 credits in school. After graduation, the logical progression was corporate America because music was not as lucrative as she had hoped. She managed to get into BET, one of the biggest media houses in America, rising to the position of Director of Corporate Travel and Corporate Services.
Alongside, Kodjoe still maintained her love for music.
“I was with a band and I was singing so I had this corporate parallel to my creative side and I loved it.”
But tragedy struck, and it changed her life. The first setback was when Kodjoe’s brother died of cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart condition) in his sleep. Two years later, her father underwent heart surgery to fix a broken valve; he also suffered from a kidney condition.
“I realized we didn’t have that much time left with him, maybe two years, so we decided to come back home,” says Kodjoe.
It was her father’s wish for the children to relocate to Ghana to give back to the country he so loved. It was a traumatic period. The loss of the two men in her life took a toll on her.
In Ghana, Kodjoe set up a management consulting business with her business partner to teach young Ghanaians to become successful in the workplace and also advice organizations on getting the best out of their workforce.
She set up another company, Moka Entertainment, which got its big break when BET came to Ghana to do a reality show. Its success led to various production contracts. Kodjoe was falling in love with music again. Her sound is a cross between Afro Jazz and Neo Soul. The highlight of her career was opening for the BET Celebration of Gospel event in Los Angeles and also for BET Walk Of Fame, which was celebrating American icons like Smokey Robinson.
She has also performed for the President of Liberia. In her weekly radio show on the hit ‘adult alternative station’, Atlantis Radio, in Accra, she spends her time covering inspirational topics that encourage listeners to look at the upside no matter their ordeal. She spends her time mentoring young talent through her management label, which has a roster of top R&amp;B singers from across Africa. Her biggest regret though is the lack of support for music.
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“I didn’t have the guts to say I don’t care what you think, I am going to do it anyway,” she says of her journey into it.
This regret led her to found yet another company, Onyx Management, geared towards helping young people understand their purpose and passion – even if they have to fight to make it happen. Her motto is live life, love life and live love.
Accra’s youth stay tuned.

Ofie1

The Corporate Creative

It’s a Thursday evening in September and the upscale Pier 59 Studios in Chelsea, New York City, is abuzz with excitement.
Backstage, models spin about, heels clattering, as wardrobe stylists determine the best silhouettes and sartorial choices for specific outfits. Makeup artists layer on the highlighter and hairstylists do last-minute blowouts. Cameras flash and roll as photographers and journalists scramble for quotes and interviews.
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The plates of assorted healthy appetizers – chicken salad, baby carrots, and celery with ranch dressing – are disappearing faster than the goody bags with coconut hair products, portable chargers and gym socks.
In many ways, Harlem’s Fashion Row is like any other New York Fashion Week (NYFW) show. In many other ways, it’s absolutely unlike any other.
“I didn’t have to bring my own foundation this time,” says Naqisha Cummings, a Caribbean model from Boston, in a clear reference to the tone of her skin. “I just knew they would have my shade.”
Mariah Mckenzie, an African-American model from Queens, New York, nods in agreement. “It’s usually not this diverse. Not at NYFW. Today’s show is more ethnic. It’s a really good stepping stone for minorities.”
And indeed, it was intended to be. Founded to increase diversity in fashion, Harlem’s Fashion Row (HFR) has transformed from its modest beginnings in 2007 to emerge one of the most prestigious industry platforms for emerging minority designers and fashion creatives.
In an industry where people of color make up less than one percent of designers in major online and department stores, HFR is significant.
Backstage, its founder Brandice Henderson is doing the rounds – looking into minute logistical details, networking, giving interviews. Earlier that day, NYMag had published a compelling profile calling the entrepreneur a small town native who started out with few connections and “fashion’s best advocate for black designers”. Today, fashion’s force of nature is decked out in a red dress, glittering necklace and rather comfortable-looking brown flats.
“I’m super-excited,” says Henderson. “This is HFR’s eighth year. And I’m about to birth a child. This feels like a new beginning.”
Harlem itself is a cradle of new beginnings. The historically black neighborhood was the seat of the Harlem Renaissance – a socio-cultural and artistic revolution in the black American community. Today, that community includes a prominent and growing African diaspora.
Indeed, in certain neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx today, as in pockets all over America, Kru, Igbo and Yoruba are the most commonly spoken non-English languages. From burgeoning sabar dance classes to the plethora of restaurants selling jollof rice and injera, from the proprietorships in Le Petit Senegal to events like the International African Arts Festival, signs of Africa’s soft power are everywhere in the world’s financial capital.
Africa has woven itself into New York with the gentle intricacy of Maasai beadwork. And today, Africa is the showstopper here in Chelsea.
The Fashion Deli, a globally focused retail platform that first opened in Cape Town, is showcasing four South African designers at HFR.
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“African fashion and lifestyle elements are no longer viewed by western audiences and buyers solely as ‘traditional’,” says Thulare Monareng, the Founder-CEO of The Fashion Deli. Attired in black, high heels and tribal-inspired jewelry from her own company, she has a relaxed sophistication about her. She looks very New York and international – the kind of lady who is so well-travelled she carries cities with her.
“Africa is now influencing global mainstream fashion and lifestyle trends,” she says. “Take Balmain’s African inspired resort 2015 collection, Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection inspired by the red Shuka worn by the Kenyan Maasai people, Sergio Rossi’s Zulu-inspired Spring/Summer 2014 footwear collection, and Vivienne Westwood’s Spring/Summer 2015 handbag collection inspired by the West African Bogolan prints.”
Armed with multiple degrees including one in Fashion Buying and Merchandising from the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, a wealth of corporate experience in her native, South Africa, and experience with her own eponymous designer label, Monareng, came to realize there was a gap in the international market for African luxury and for ethically produced, sustainable and conscious products.
“There’s a lot more to African fashion than just wax prints,” she says. “I want to present an alternative narrative of African designers.”
And so, under bright lights on a long, ivory runaway, the alternative narrative began to unfold. If the audience was previously unfamiliar with African fashion, or didn’t know what to expect, they were about to have their hearts stolen and minds blown. The thoughtfully-curated array of gorgeous ensembles elicited sighs of wonder, gasps of surprise and frantic iPhone photography from the onlookers.
From veteran designer Marianne Fassler came prints found from and inspired by the cityscapes and citizens of her native Johannesburg. Fassler’s love for her modern, cosmopolitan city, which she described as a place to find one’s “personal gold” truly shone through. Every garment featured a palette that positively burst with vivid colors and prints that came together with a giggling playfulness. Dramatic pleats and paneling prevailed. Flirtatious flowing and sheer fabrics abounded.
Where Fassler’s brand drew from the urban jungle, Katherine-Mary Pichulik’s accessories label PICHULIK, drew from the colors of the South African environment. The pieces were designed and inspired by African tribal ornamentation, making symbolic use of color, beadwork, basketry.
“The sacred nature of making jewelry and its link to ceremony and initiation inspire a powerful way of making ornamentation that serves to not only adorn, but alchemize and empower the wearer,” says Pichulik.
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From Celeste Arendse’s SELFI brand, inspired by the subconscious, came the SELF AWAKE collection featuring geometric silhouettes in a palette that was entirely black and white and primary colors. Everything was digitally-printed.
“The collection explores the connection between the self and technology,” explains Arendse. “What we see and what we touch.” Even something like the use of primary colors was inspired by early 90s video games.
Futuristic and forward-thinking, Arendse’s collection certainly subverted the Western notion of Africa in fashion and rewrote the script. Presumably in JavaScript.
The Adriaan Kuiters label featured sophisticated unisex and androgynous garments in neutral colors and sleek silhouettes. The collection exuded timelessness, being both current and classic. The designers Keith Henning and Jody Paulsen experimented with gender lines, using women’s items on men and men’s on women.
If there’s a running theme throughout The Fashion Deli’s collection, it is that of the old and new worlds cocooned in harmony. It’s a universe where nature and cityscapes, humans and technology, the traditional and the contemporary are simpatico.
Contemporary African fashion, it seems, doesn’t seek to conform to global ideals, but rather, seeks to disrupt and improve them.
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“South Africans are now looking directly in our backyard for inspiration, because it’s so rich and diverse.” says Arendse. “I feel really lucky to be living in a time where countries can merge so easily. The new generation understands the power of technology and are able to communicate their messages directly without agencies. The youth in South Africa are expressing their own style on social media which is so unique and is certainly being noticed on global platforms. This will only strengthen us as creators.”
Amina Nuwame, a Senegalese model who Monareng met in Harlem, and who found herself debuting at HFR, considers herself lucky. She had to hide her love for fashion and modeling from her family until they found her on Walf Fadjri TV and eventually caved. It’s been a long journey to New York City since then.
“There’s a lot of talent in Africa. But we need more opportunities to get discovered globally,” she says.
“Africa comes from a rich lineage of craft and has a large network of incredible artisans,” says Pichulik.
The possibilities for African designers it seems are endless.

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Unfurling Africa in The Big  Apple

It was a golden path walked by the young Dare Okoudjou growing up in Benin. He came from a good family, a teacher father and nurse mother; he wanted for little and was able to study in Europe.
More than a decade ago, as a final year student for a Master’s in telecommunications engineering in Paris, Okoudjou had companies hounding him with lucrative job offers.
Engineering led him to New York and a job as an intern in the autumn of 1998. He was 22 years old.
“In those six months in New York, I realized I wanted to be part of a bigger plan, a bigger picture. There were a lot of offers from companies, such as Ericsson and Alcatel, but I didn’t like it there,” says Okoudjou.
The salaries in telecommunications were high and engineers were sought after, but the thought of working in the United States, far from Africa, terrified Okoudjou.
“Nineteen ninety nine was the boom of the dotcom. I was one of the first people who knew the stuff. At that time, a lot people had not heard about internet in Africa, I was an engineer of it,” says Okoudjou.
Instead, he accepted a job as a consultant in telecommunications and media at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Paris in 1999 hoping it would lead home. He says the French were doing a lot of work in Africa. His first project was to launch a mobile network in Morocco. This was fortuitous. When Okoudjou finished school, at the top of the class in Benin, he went to an engineering scholarship in Morocco, for two years.
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“At PwC, I met great people from different backgrounds but which I related to. We knew we were fortunate to be there. They were sensitive to the world around them. We shared the sense of responsibility towards the larger community. Then there was a lady who created a link between PwC and the world of NGOs,” says Okoudjou.
In 2001, he quit and joined an NGO in the north of Tanzania. The NGO looked after 30,000 people in a refugee camp in the highly populated Nyanga district.
“That was the time I heard the call of Africa. I felt I needed to do something more helpful to the people than sending money now and then to my parents,” he says.
“African people were going there [Europe] out of desperation, I was not. I was in quest of greatness. I wanted to be the best. I really enjoyed my years in Paris.”
In Tanzania, Okoudjou realized the hidden side of what he calls the business of NGOs. He regrets that the camps turned out businesses that compete to serve people but with no intention to liberate them. Their business was to keep people in the camps as long as they could, he laments.
“No offence to the [NGO] people, some people had great hearts. They wanted to help somehow but that very personal need to help translated into a situation which will maintain thousands of people in the same situation for a long time. The refugees were not allowed to work, as a result they would sell what was donated to them to the working villagers,” says Okoudjou.
“Trade business is better, it provides the right incentives. There are no hidden agendas. The whole NGO business has hidden motives, so I left the NGOs after two months and went back to PwC and later enrolled for an MBA in 2005.”
In 2005, the former Minister of Finance in South Africa, Trevor Manuel, addressed Okoudjou’s MBA classmates in Paris about opportunities that his country had. The idea of setting up in Johannesburg was born.
The following year, Okoudjou joined MTN in Johannesburg and worked in the mobile financial services section, also known as mobile money. This position allowed Okoudjou to travel Africa.
“When I was in Paris in August 2005, there was a small article about MTN mobile money. I knew then that was what I was looking for because it had all the elements. It’s about technology and I love technology. I knew money transfer inside out. We were students in France and people in Benin sent us money. When I was in France I sent money to Benin, but there were always people trying to rip us off. That’s when I wrote to MTN and said I wanted to come and work for them. By the end of 2008, I realized I wanted my own thing and that was mobile money transfer,” says Okoudjou.
It took Okoudjou six months to raise $500,000 and start his own money transfer company, with three people, in Johannesburg. This was a similar business that he managed for three years at MTN. For the next three years Mobile Financial Services Africa won plump contracts with cellphone networks. They grew from one branch in South Africa to more than 10 on the continent. Then disaster struck. The $2 million, raised by the end of 2011, dried up overnight.
“In May last year, it was so hard, I struggled paying salaries, I couldn’t pay my home electricity bill, and they cut it off. I am from Benin, I took it on the chin. We cooked outside on an open fire. I turned it into something fun for my kids,” says Okoudjou.
By June, despite the increasing pressure to salvage the sinking business, Okoudjou says he turned away several offers to sell a portion of the business, or form partnerships. The deals didn’t feel right.
Okoudjou forged ahead trying to save his business. He opened more branches and tried soliciting credible shareholders.
On a hot Friday evening in November, it got worse. Okoudjou’s flight at Abidjan International Airport, back to South Africa, was delayed for six hours. He had flown in to open a branch in Côte d’Ivoire even though his business was bleeding back home. While at the airport, a security company called to tell Okoudjou his house in Johannesburg had been broken into.
“I could hear my children crying. My wife was not there with them. I couldn’t reach her on her phone and I was sitting in that Abidjan airport without money and helpless. I have been trying to do this business for five years, but I failed. I drove this [business] to the ground, there’s nothing I could do… And I remembered I read somewhere: ‘There’s always a way. There must be a way,’” he says.
Okoudjou says in that moment of despair at the airport he took out a piece of paper and wrote all the things he should try and people he should call in the next month to plead for a lifeline.
His father Pierre-Claver Okoudjou is a retired philosophy teacher and a prolific French essay writer in Benin. He says at that lonely moment in Abidjan he took inspiration from his father’s essays.
For a month, Okoudjou worked hard to find investors to save his business. Now, it is safe with 10 shareholders and 20 employees on the continent.
“We are not completely out of the woods, we still have a mountain to climb,” he says.
That is the philosophy that emerges from the scars of a worst day when you suffer the tears of your children from far away.

“I Could Hear My Children Crying”

Africa continues to grip New York and is not likely to let go of its tight hold anytime soon. 2013 was an exciting year of celebration and progress for all things Africa and there is no doubt that this will continue well into 2014 and beyond. It has been impressive to hear policymakers, entrepreneurs and media so willing to talk about Africa in a new and different way, so much so that some commentators are now complaining that they are tired of hearing that ‘Africa is rising’. Some people are never pleased!
It is not just in New York, however—other parts of the East Coast, such as Washington D.C., have also been highlighting African progress. In October, I was honored to moderate a panel on African technology and entrepreneurship hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus at their annual Africa Braintrust event. The Braintrust, hosted by Californian congresswoman Karen Bass, who has been deeply passionate about the relationship between Africa and the United States for many years, also featured the presidents of Somalia and Burkina Faso, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Blaise Campaoré respectively.
The annual United Nations General Assembly was also well attended. British fashion designer Ozwald Boateng appeared with a throng of his celebrity friends including actor Jamie Foxx, Nigerian oil tycoon Kola Aluko, millionaire Tony Elumelu, and a number of key people from the African Development Bank. Boateng introduced his latest non-fashion venture, the Made In Africa Foundation, which aims to lift 200 million Africans out of poverty through infrastructure projects and the new Africa50 Fund. They had the privilege of ringing the NASDAQ stock market opening bell to mark the launch of the fund. Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, also paid a visit to the New York Stock Exchange to ring the closing bell, making history as the first Nigerian to do so.
The African diaspora in New York has been getting a lot more attention from the media lately. One of these is Amini Kajunju who is the president and CEO of the Africa-America Institute. She will be honored in 2014 as the Advocate of the Year. And who can forget that yet again an African—Geoffrey Mutai from Kenya—won the New York City Marathon in an incredible time of 2:08:24. In fact, eight of the top 10 placed athletes were from Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Impressive stuff.
Another New Yorker making waves is Derrick Ashong. The television presenter and musician is the first African with his own show on American network TV. He is an anchor of Latino TV channel Fusion’s new show, where he covers politics, cultural events, the day’s big headlines as well as the entertainment and social media trends that matter most to young Hispanics and millennials. Although he is not covering African topics directly, it is important that someone like him represents the continent in this way.
An exciting arrival for 2014 is the New Africa Centre, based in an upscale part of Harlem. The institute is spearheaded by Mo Ibrahim and his daughter Hadeel and aims to showcase the best of African art and intellect. The Ibrahims will be raising up to $60 million to renovate the center and host an art gallery, museum, theater, policy institute and executive club. It is expected to be a magnet for Africans, Afrophiles and investors. Guests at the opening included Bono, Harry Belafonte and the reverend Jesse Jackson, Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren, musicians Youssou N’Dour and Angélique Kidjo and basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo.
“There is no African institute in this city where we can exhibit our art and culture and hold debates about African issues,” says Hadeel, who is to be the co-chair of the new center’s board.
African business continues to thrive with New York private equity groups, such as Blackstone, KKR and Pinebridge Investments, investing in the continent. Such companies believe that there is much more to come in terms of Africa’s growth and development and that there are huge economic opportunities available. This is a good sign, particularly as the Obama administration and other vested parties desire an increase in foreign direct investment.
Here’s to Africa, onwards and upwards!   FL

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Onwards And Upwards In New York

It is a chilly Friday morning in New York and I am sitting in the back of a black SUV on its way to pick up supermodel Alek Wek from her brownstone Brooklyn home. It was meant to be a glamor photo shoot in the wide open spaces of upstate New York with the supermodel-turned-businesswoman-turned-activist. The temperamental weather in New York had other ideas and simply would not let us be great outdoor Africans. A weather advisory warning of a snow blizzard had been issued. New Yorkers are overly sensitive about the weather for good reason; Hurricane Sandy had torn at the city earlier in the year. I took the cue from my New York crew and booked a studio close-to-home in Brooklyn to minimize travel and exposure to inclement weather.
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Wek is as much a supermodel as she is the girl-next-door. She commands the runways in the name of fashion designers such as: Chanel, Hermes, Donna Karan, Christian Lacroix and Zac Posen. Her career has thrived in Paris, New York, Milan and London and she has also appeared on the covers of high-end fashion magazines such as Elle, Glamor, Cosmopolitan and Essence. She has also been the face of campaigns for Benetton, Kenzo and Saks Fifth Avenue.
No small feat for an African girl born in Wau, Sudan, now South Sudan, in 1977 to a family of nine. Speaking softly in her British accent, Wek talks of her life, between sips from the coffee cup clasped between her hands.
“Our careers define us to an extent, but then there’s you as a person. You are not born with that career even though you have it already in you. For most of us, and especially us African women, we have to overcome a lot of obstacles to get there. And even when you get there, however you define there for yourself, there is still more to accomplish.”
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Despite the fact that she is one of Africa’s global icons, she has a pleasant disposition and we chat like old friends as the driver deftly drives us through the snowy roads to the studio.
That Wek has defied all beauty standards is obvious. Dressed in skinny jeans, layered tops, winter jacket and her trademark head scarf, she stands at 180cm tall, with short hair. Wek is from the Dinka tribe of South Sudan, with piercing, oval-shaped brown eyes, high cheek bones and teeth whiter than white. It is an understatement to say Wek’s features are striking: very model material in a nouveau kind of way.
“I came into the industry at a time when some people would say: ‘she’s odd, she’s weird, she’s bizarre.’ But I never saw myself that way and the true people, the legends, the talented, saw me.”
As Wek slips into a gown made by fellow African David Tlale, of Johannesburg, she also assumes her professional power. In front of the camera, she epitomizes the confidence of the new generation of African leaders.
Her head wrap is more than a fashion statement. It is a reminder of the place she came from, where her fragile frame survived only through incredible strength and resilience.
“I have gone through the civil war where we were barricaded in our house for three days because of the shootings and bombings. The scariest thing for me was feeling like there is nobody to protect you and nobody’s life is accounted for. I used to have nightmares when we fled to England. It took me some years to get over that.”
Wek has never forgotten these desperate days. As her fame rose, she found her voice to speak for the millions of huddled and vulnerable refugees around the world.
“I know firsthand what it feels like to walk for weeks and weeks. I know what it feels like to eat whatever you can find in the bush. I know what it is like to be voiceless,” she declares as she describes the journey she undertook as her family fled from rebel and government forces, when civil war raged in her hometown in 1985.
Wek arrived in London, aged 14, and was discovered soon after by a Models 1 scout in a South London market and has been a model ever since.
“I model in moderation now. It is not the quantity, but the quality of my work. I also want to make time and space for the next phase of my life. I would love to settle down, get married and have children.”
So much so, that Wek has scaled back her work so she can live a more grounded life. This year, she ended a five-year relationship.
“For him, it was more like a three-year relationship since I traveled a lot. I then realized that I have to live in the same country as the man in order for this marriage thing to happen!” Not one to pine for long, she is back in the dating scene and also dotes on a fox terrier by the name of Lil Bit.
Wek says her mother is a true African mother.
“Whenever I visit mom in England, and we sit down to have supper, the first question is always: ‘The babies?’ So, I get to practice with my Lil Bit,” laughs Wek.
At 36, she is a grown woman—an African woman with a strong sense of self and purpose in life.
“If anything, fashion and modeling has not only given me trips to the most exotic locations around the world, fantastic perks, stays in five-star hotels and expensive gifts. Most importantly, it has given me a platform with which to make a difference on important issues that matter to me.”
This stance earned Wek a position as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in which she travels to war-torn nations.
In 2011, South Sudan split from the Sudan, as part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of protracted war in the continent’s largest country.
“Freedom is so special and so precious,” she speaks cautiously, as if she were reliving her traumatic childhood.
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For the first time, since she fled from the region with her family, the Sudanese refugee-turned-supermodel went back to South Sudan.
“Going back after South Sudan became independent was very emotional for me. I never really thought that we would attain independence. It was a very surreal moment for me,” she says fighting back tears.
She is guarded when I ask her to rate the new president of South Sudan, Salva Kii.
“It would be unfair to try to rate him so soon and I will tell you why. When someone has been in the bush for decades fighting a war and now has to make a considerable switch to lead the country, you have to cut him or her some slack.”
Wek is mindful that South Sudan is a collective effort—a collaboration among stakeholders including the government and citizens.
“I truly believe that it is our generation. Us. You and I and the rest of the continent and diaspora. We are the ones we have been waiting for.”   FL

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